Naruto Hatake

Mist and Ice

The teams made their way on to Tazuna's home, after the encounter with that last group of ninja they were being a bit more on guard this time around. Little was said on their way to the village, although he told them they would need to hire a boat to get them to his village as the bridge of course wasn't completed enough for them to travel on. They mainly tried to keep going on being quit hoping not to draw out too much attention.

The atmosphere was a bit tense as they made their way they entered into a forested area that was near the large body of water that separated Wave country. There was a dirt road that they were taking it was an old trade route to the country although no one really used it anymore thanks to Gato. Kakashi didn't like to take this route as it was too exposed but Tazuna wasn't a ninja and would only slow them down if they tried another method. He just hoped that because this route was old any forces wouldn't be watching it.

Naruto was looking around the forest, he didn't want to get surprised like last time and this time he would be a bit more ready. He cast a worried look to Hinata and he knew that she had trouble believing in herself although he didn't know why. She was one of the strongest Kunoichi that he knew in their age range, she was the daughter of the head of one of the most powerful clans, and she had her family's bloodline and fighting style. She had a lot more going for her than most of the females in their class so he didn't see the problem.

He was wondering what to say to her but wasn't sure since as he didn't know what the exact problem was. He looked to see Kiba and Akamaru sniffing around for trouble, Shino looked calm and relaxed but that wasn't new. Sasuke looked like he actually wanted a fight and Naruto was eager to get into a fight as well but when he saw Sakura he noticed that she had been looking depressed lately.

He would have asked her what was wrong but his dad said they had to try and be silent from this point on and so he never could get the chance. He didn't like the quit, although his dad kept telling him that silence was a good friend to a ninja he just never liked it, it just went against who he was really.

He sighed as they walked along the road until he noticed a rustling in the bushes, at first he thought it was an animal but it was a bit big to be one. It had to be someone waiting for them and he slowly went to his weapons pouch on his leg.

"Got ya!" he shouted as he threw the kunai into the bushes startling everyone there.

Everyone turned to see what was going on, only to see a small little white rabbit hop out of the bushes.

"Oh man Naruto you need to loosen up some," Kiba laughed.

"Naruto how could you!?" Sakura yelled at him, "It was a harmless bunny rabbit!"

"N-Naruto-Kun!" Hinata agreed as she watched the little white bunny hoping along. She hoped that Naruto hadn't hurt the little rabbit. It was a cute little thing and she bent down towards it, the little white rabbit seemed to regard her for a moment before slowly going towards her. She was surprised at this the rabbit seemed to be a tame animal and not some wild one. Hinata was thinking someone might have lost a pet as she slowly petted the small animal.

"I think he likes you," Sakura said smiling at the cute little animal. Hinata smiled as she dug into her backpack for something for it to eat. She found some small baby carrots she took for some snack food as sometimes people didn't take the right kinds of foods with them on missions. She knew that Naruto would have carried a lot of instant ramen on him and she made sure that he at least ate something good for him at times.

She handed the small carrot to the animal as it sniffed it and slowly started to eat the offered food. Hinata giggled feeling its whiskers tickling her hand.

Kurenai sighed knowing that look the young girl would most likely want to keep it now. At least Akamaru didn't seem to mind the other animal. She was thinking of saying something when she noticed how hard Kakashi was staring at the rabbit.